Generally, the present invention relates to a production facility with a transport system, wherein elongated products, in particular wind turbine blades, are formed by using moulds that extend along the length of the elongated product and by combining the moulds to form the complete elongated product.
Elongated products, such as wind turbine blades, are frequently formed on the basis of fibre reinforced polymer materials, wherein a technique is frequently used, in which a first half of the elongated product is formed by applying layer after layer in one of the moulds and at the same time preparing the second half of the elongated product layer after layer in the second mould and finally combining the two moulds so as to join the two halves of the elongated product. Typically, the two halves have to be prepared on the basis of a specific process strategy with high precision, in particular when considering wind turbine blades, so that there is generally a continuous attempt in this field of industry to increasingly apply automated process techniques, which, for instance, require the usage of some sort of robot system, and the like. Due to the significant length of, for instance wind turbine blades, a corresponding robot system has to appropriately be positioned along the length of the elongated moulds, thereby typically requiring an adequate transport system. A corresponding transport system has to be configured in such a way that a movable part, which may carry a robot device and the like, can be positioned at any location along the length of the elongated mould, however, without unduly restricting accessibility of the mould by operators and workers. Preferably, the two moulds may be accessed individually and independently by a robot device, which in turn may require an appropriate support assembly in the form of rails, and the like, which, on the one hand, allows access of the moulds during the preparation of the various layer systems, while on the other hand, the moulds may be brought into contact with each other so as to form the composite mould assembly and thus enable the joining of the two halves of the elongated product.
Frequently, the two mould assemblies are brought into contact with each other by providing an appropriate mould drive mechanism connected to a movable mould assembly, which is rotated around at least one axis of rotation in order to position the movable mould assembly above the non-movable mould assembly, thereby “closing” the composite mould assembly. In particular, when a high degree of flexibility in operating a robot system on the basis of a transport system is required, as discussed above, typically the transport system comprises at least one centre rail positioned laterally between the movable and non-movable mould assemblies, wherein, however, the central position of this rail may significantly interfere with the rotational movement of the movable mould assembly.
In this respect WO2011/035539 describes an automated production system for wind turbine blades, in which two gantries can be independently operated so as to allow each gantry to be positioned along the corresponding mould on the basis of a centre rail that is positioned at a height level selected so as to provide for superior accessibility by workers. On the other hand, the centre rail comprises gaps that are positioned such along the entire length of the centre rail that the various hinge mechanisms for rotating one of the moulds can move through the corresponding gaps when closing the mould. In the open position of the mould assemblies the gaps may be “bridged” upon moving the gantry by providing a specific wheel system that allows the crossing of the gaps without losing contact to the centre rail. In other embodiments the gaps can temporarily be closed by laterally moving corresponding bridge sections from a first position, allowing the crossing of the hinge mechanisms, into a second position, in which the gap in the centre rail is closed.
Although the production system described in this document may provide for certain advantages with respect to allowing access of the moulds by workers and robot systems, there is still room for improvement so as to increase one or more of productivity, flexibility, efficiency and controllability of the production process.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a production facility including a transport system in order to enable the fabrication of elongated products, in particular of wind turbine blades, while taking into account one or more of the above identified aspects with respect to an improvement over the previously described prior art.